ACA500 plus?

[E-Penguin]

I could even do it in German to improve my language skills. Educational and fun.

Maybe I'll buy a bunch o' CFs then. Does it also install P96, now that it belongs to iComp? Wishful thinking, perhaps.

[Schoenfeld]

Originally Posted by demolition

It would be nice if it was possible to specify how large you want your system partition to be instead of being stuck with the default settings. I generally prefer my system partition to be 200-500MB max. no matter if I am using 4 or 8GB CF cards since that will hold pretty much all the programs that I would need to have installed.

We discussed this internally, but decided to go for "as few clicks as possible", because the average user will buy the card that's on the sweet spot - currently, that's on the edge between 16G and 32G. Limiting the system partition to 537M is a good compromise then, and sacrificing 50M for a "usually hidden" 1.3 partition is also a low price to pay for painless installation without confronting the new user with options that he most likely does not understand. Look at current computers: 99% of the users never heard the word "partitioning" and are likely to never hear it - at least not if it comes to "partitioning a harddisk or flash card".

One bug has slipped into menu V0.110: The Shift-F7 option is gone, which lets you use the classic installation procedure. It was there with the previous version I've tested, and it slipped my attention for this released version now. Sorry about that - it'll be back in with the next update.

Originally Posted by demolition

One minor thing I noticed - if you read the licences, you cannot go back to the menu any longer without rebooting. Not that it takes long to reboot though.

You can go back; try left-Amiga-m. The installer is still running in the background on it's own screen. I do admit that using "more" for displaying the licenses is a quick hack. In the long run, I'd like to have a text reader on the installer screen, which can also be controlled with joystick, mouse and keyboard. Well, at least it's on my wishlist for the A1200 reloaded. We're kind of limited on the A500, as it must work with a 512k chipram config. This limits the number of "hidden screens" where a 14MHz 68000 can render the font.

Originally Posted by E-Penguin

Does it also install P96, now that it belongs to iComp? Wishful thinking, perhaps.

That would require a hardware target on the ACA500plus (= a graphics card). While this does not exist, installing P96 does not make sense at all. Further, P96 requires a 68020+ CPU, and the ACA500plus is a 68000 accelerator.

We did think about automatically installing WHDload, and I even got the OK from Bert Jahn to include the installation archive in the ACA500plus product. However, we ultimately decided to not clutter up the flash rom of the ACA500plus and only make required preparations for the WHDload installer script to run on it's own. Most software products for the Amiga do have an installer script, and the most complicated part of transferring the installation archive to the Amiga is solved with the CFAux slot. LHA is pre-installed on the OS3.1 partition, so unpacking is also possible without further transferring. I do have ideas how to make this even simpler, but that would require network. On my agenda, but I am very busy with the C64 Reloaded MK2 for the next few weeks.

Jens

[demolition]

Originally Posted by Schoenfeld

Limiting the system partition to 537M is a good compromise then

That sounds very reasonable and I must have misunderstood the original text since I thought the system was set to 50% even with large cards.

Regarding automatic installation of additional software, perhaps the user could put their own archives into the user flash which would then be extracted to the system partition after WB setup has completed? The user could then put different packages on the ACA depending on how they would like their default WB installation to be. The installer could then detect these packages and you can select which ones you want to be installed. This would be useful for people who regularly setup new systems with different configurations.

[Schoenfeld]

Originally Posted by demolition

Regarding automatic installation of additional software, perhaps the user could put their own archives into the user flash which would then be extracted to the system partition after WB setup has completed?

Sounds like a detour to me: First transfer it to the A500, then to the onboard-flash, then to another CF card. Why not use an installation archive from CFAUX:?

Originally Posted by demolition

The user could then put different packages on the ACA depending on how they would like their default WB installation to be. The installer could then detect these packages and you can select which ones you want to be installed. This would be useful for people who regularly setup new systems with different configurations.

Those who regularly set up new systems will likely have some kind of "make"-tool (AKA installer-scripts, not necessarily based on the Amiga-Installer). I really don't see where using the onboard flash of the ACA500plus can help, as you always have two CF cards available for such purposes.

I guess luxury is when you don't see the possibilities that are already there ;-)

Jens

[demolition]

True, putting some archives and install scripts on the cfaux card would work just as well. It would require a few keystrokes to run after installation but hardly much of a problem.

Regarding flashing KS images, does it still require a valid checksum for those?
I previously tried flashing a slot with a diagnostic KS ROM but the author did not put a proper KS checksum on it, so the ACA would not allow it. In a real Amiga it would also be irrelevant since the code for checking this CS could be either missing or different. It would be nice if it was possible to force flashing of the image, despite the checksum being invalid since I could find many uses for being able to boot from a diagnostic ROM.

Or you could even preload the ACA with a diag ROM.

[E-Penguin]

Originally Posted by Schoenfeld

That would require a hardware target on the ACA500plus (= a graphics card). While this does not exist, installing P96 does not make sense at all. Further, P96 requires a 68020+ CPU, and the ACA500plus is a 68000 accelerator.
s

Fair point.

Although perhaps it isn't too uncommon for people with an ACA500+ to have an IndivisionECS and an 030+ 1200 accelerator plugged in... Ratte's IndivisionECS - Picasso96 driver. I realise users advanced enough to get that deep into it can copy their own files from the CF card.

[appiah4]

Originally Posted by alpine9000

The new installer is great!

I'm incredibly impressed, getting a ClassicWB setup running on WinUAE then transferring it to the ACA500 was a daunting task for me in the beginning, having never had a Hard Drive on an Amiga before!

[lantus360]

Originally Posted by Schoenfeld

The installer will delete all data on the CF card, so you should have a backup (it tells you so and lets you stop, so no worries). At the low prices of CF cards these days, you might want to consider a second card :-)

What I'd like to see is YT-Videos that show an *uncut* installation procedure.

Jens

watching an install procedure in full doesn't seem terribly exciting. uncut and sped-up maybe ?

[Schoenfeld]

The show is "it's so fast that one may believe it's sped-up" - that's the whole reason why I'm suggesting an uncut video.

Jens

[Toni Wilen]

Originally Posted by demolition

Regarding flashing KS images, does it still require a valid checksum for those?

It does not require it but it still complains if checksum is wrong or ROM image "looks wrong".

[lantus360]

Originally Posted by Schoenfeld

The show is "it's so fast that one may believe it's sped-up" - that's the whole reason why I'm suggesting an uncut video.

Jens

alright you've intrigued me, ill work on a video (with stop watch timer). stay tuned

[Jope]

Cool updates! Makes me want to save up for an ACA500+ to add to my hardware hoard. :-)

Originally Posted by Schoenfeld

After installation, a few "essentials" are being copied to the OS3.1 partition: LHA, Kick1.3 as a file, and the relocation table that WHDload wants to see. This means that the system is "almost completely" prepared for a WHDload installation. Not yet completely, but we're working on it.

One thing that I was always annoyed by is, that the installer binary is not installed by the installer. :-) Have you guys considered having installer 43.3 copied as part of those essenstials?

[alpine9000]

I created a real time video of a full install:

[ Show youtube player ]

[Schoenfeld]

Originally Posted by Jope

One thing that I was always annoyed by is, that the installer binary is not installed by the installer. :-) Have you guys considered having installer 43.3 copied as part of those essenstials?

The automatic installer does copy the Amiga installer to the system partition, but not the latest one, as my license does not cover that. However, I'm in talks with the authors of InstallerNG - that's the only part missing to be ready for a quick install of WHDload.

Originally Posted by alpine9000

I created a real time video of a full install:

[ Show youtube player ]

Granted, it's not so impressive without an accelerator. I'm an impatient guy, I mostly have a 40MHz ACA1233n connected. This one goes from power-up to the installer in a bit less than 40 seconds, and copying the files is also substantially faster, as the A1200 accelerator has 32-bit access to the CF cards.

With too many tests performed with an accelerator connected, another thing slipped my attention: If both CF cards have a dual-PFS3-partition setup, the installer runs out of memory in 68000 mode. We'll cover that with the next update. Quick workaround: Only have one CF card inserted.

Jens

[honx]

Originally Posted by alpine9000

I created a real time video of a full install:

[ Show youtube player ]

your music link in video information to this video leads to www.purple-planet.com
unfortunately there is tons of music available in many (about 25 or more) subfolders.
what is the name of the track you used in your video and where exactly can i find it?

[alpine9000]

Originally Posted by honx

your music link in video information to this video leads to www.purple-planet.com
unfortunately there is tons of music available in many (about 25 or more) subfolders.
what is the name of the track you used in your video and where exactly can i find it?

I think it was “Relaxing->Shifting Sands”

[E-Penguin]

Originally Posted by Schoenfeld

I mostly have a 40MHz ACA1233n connected.

It's good to be the boss, eh?

[honx]

Originally Posted by alpine9000

I think it was “Relaxing->Shifting Sands”

thanks a lot! they even offer a download button, that's a service! no need for soundcloud grabbers.

btw. where can i get a cheap (=used) accelerator card which is compatible to aca500plus?
can't afford any new ones offered by icomp. so it has to be used accelerator board for me.

[demolition]

So after trying out this new installer, I have a few comments:

1. I was wondering why the installer took so long to install as I expected it to be faster than the video since I have an ACA1221ec installed. I then noticed that it was copying files from the WB3.1 disk I had mounted in my Gotek drive in DF1: instead of using the virtual drive.
So perhaps there is a way to make sure it always uses the extracted images instead of just accessing whatever WB disk the system chooses?

2. I can see that MaxTransfer on all partitions are set to 0xffffff instead of 0x1fe00 which is the usual recommendation. While this may not be a problem on the ACA500plus, I'm thinking it could be a problem if you wanted to use the installation elsewhere?

Originally Posted by honx

btw. where can i get a cheap (=used) accelerator card which is compatible to aca500plus?
can't afford any new ones offered by icomp. so it has to be used accelerator board for me.

ACA1221(ec) is one of the cheapest ones out there, but the price is usually not significantly lower than a new one. You might be able to save 25% or so if you can find one.

How large should the work drive be on a 16gb compact flash cart after using the installer? It is showing 28,401,415 blocks from the information menu and 1,582m when the window is open.